Troublemakers by Carla Shalaby explained in quotes

In this blog posts, I will be discussing 3 quotes form Carla Shalaby's article Troublemakers. Shalaby article goes in detail that early schooling is built around rigid obedience, not around how young children actually develop. Shalaby shows how exclusionary practices like suspension, time-outs, and constant removal from class don’t fix behavior; they just cut kids off from academics and belonging, feeding long-term inequality that hits children of color hardest.

(Quote: 1): “School does not welcome this protest, this natural way of childhood. Unquestioning deference to authority is the requirement and the expectation of school, where adult directives replace children’s own desires"

What the quotes means is that kids are naturally curious, noisy, active, and full of “no” and “why.” But school is built to reward quiet obedience, not questioning. So the normal way kids exist in the world clashes with what school demands from them. This quote shows the basic tension between kids and school: children come in wired to explore, ask questions, and push back, but school expects them to sit still, follow orders, and accept adult authority without argument.

(Quote: 2) "Instead, we turn a gaze of pathology on children. At the age of five, if you cannot follow directions and work independently, you are likely to begin a long series of interactions with the school’s various mechanisms for identifying, labeling, and remediating deficits. Suddenly and swiftly, children become problems."

Here, Shalaby is pointing out how quickly schools medicalize or pathologize kids. A five-year-old who struggles to follow directions is not shocking that’s literally what five-year-olds are like. But instead of questioning whether our demands make sense for such young children, we start labeling them, sending them through special services, and treating them as if they’re defective

Reflection/Questions/Comments To Share: I like the idea that every time a child refuses a demand, they’re telling us something about that demand. Instead of only asking “What’s wrong with this kid?”, we could ask “Why doesn’t this request work for this child in this moment?”

Child Mind Institute Quotes

In this week's reading of our blog posts on "Child Mind Institue" an article written by Caroline Miller, is an article that disscuss the term "Nuerodiversity" in the context of a school setting. She goes into detail with emphasizing strengths in neurodiversity students and how they are facing challenges in their school settings. Here in this blog I will pick 3 quotes and explain them in this blog. 

(Quote: 1) "Some children are now diagnosing themselves with conditions that fall under the umbrella of neurodiversity, seeing a potential diagnosis as a way to validate their experiences."

This quote is pointing out how a lot of kids and teens today turn to self-diagnosis as a form of self-understanding. When you don’t fit in, struggle to focus, feel overwhelmed by noises or social situations, it can be really comforting to find a label that explains those feelings. For many young people, thinking “Maybe I’m autistic,” or “Maybe I have ADHD,” is less about chasing a trend and more about trying to validate the fact that something genuinely feels different in their daily life

(Quote: 2) "Being a strength-based therapist means that I look at the strengths of the family, and of the individual,” said Dr. Lee. “And then I think, ‘How can I take this unique individual’s strengths and use them to breathe life into an evidence-based treatment?’

This quote shows a very different approach from the usual “fix the broken parts” mindset. Instead of seeing the child or family as a bundle of problems, Dr. Lee starts by asking, “What are this person’s strengths?” Maybe a kid with ADHD is incredibly creative, has intense focus when they’re interested in something, or is great at thinking in big-picture idea

(Quote: 3) "Neurodiversity, she says, has become something many people, especially adolescents, are increasingly comfortable identifying with. For kids around middle-school age who are struggling socially, identifying as neurodiverse can be a way to make sense of what they’re going through"

This quote explains why the language of neurodiversity has become so popular, especially among middle-schoolers and teenagers. Those years are already awkward, but for kids who are truly struggling socially missing cues, feeling overwhelmed in groups, or constantly feeling “out of sync”

Reflection/Questions/Comments To Share:

Neurodiversity to me felt like a simple concept where it just a phenomenon  where people think differently, but this article showed me that it is way more than that, and it can affect and impacted individual's lives heavily. 

Videos Analyses

 Theses are my analyses on the various videos we did in class through our in person lectures. 

Teach us all: 

My analysis:

Precious Knowledge: 

My Analysis: 

Classroom Tour: 

My analysis:

What to Look for in a Classroom by Alfie Kohn & Introduction to Culturally Relevant Pedagogy by Learning for Justice

 Reflection:

In this week's reading "What to Look for in a Classroom." By Alfie Kohn made me analyze all of my past classroom settings under the chart the Kohn presents in his article. With the "Introduction to Culturally Relevant Pedagogy" by Learning for Justice. I cannot help but see similarities that it has with the film we watched in class called "Precious Knowledge" where the idea that teachers can build strong connections with students through teaching them the power of culture.

During my middle school years, I noticed how much of a difference classrooms looked compared to my elementary school's classrooms. The first two columns really made me reflect and recognizes some signs that Kohn mentions on his articles. The first ones I want to mention is Kohn's furniture signs where he mentions how desks facing towards the teacher is a sign to be worried about in education. For most of my elementary years, I cannot remember a time where my desk was behind another student or in rows facing the teachers. I can recall many times where I sat in groups where we face each other, sat next one another and swap desk with neighboring classrooms with assigned partners. I disagree with Kohn's ideas that walls that show student assignment being displayed is a negative trait since I believe students having reminders can help them be on track on any upcoming assignments for their class. However, I do agree that having commercial posters or nothing on classroom walls make it feel less of a fun learning environment and more of a chore to add to the checklists.

Reflection/Questions/Comments To Share: How can future educators like us can identify any traits that we can encourage learning and avoid any pitfalls that can frustrate students due to culture of power?

Quotes from Sleeter, The Academic and Social Value of Ethnic Studies

In this week's reading, The Academic and Social Value of Ethnic Studies from Christine E. Sleeter discusses the mainstream curricula that reflected the diversity of the United States population. However, the text concludes that whites continue are predominately taught in detail and are often required to learn while other ethnicities' history is are not properly taught the same way as white focused figures. 

(Quote: 1) "Whites continue to receive the most attention and appear in the widest variety of roles, dominating story lines and lists of accomplish- ments. African Americans, the next most represented racial group, appear in a more lim- ited range of roles and usually receive only a sketchy account historically, being featured mainly in relationship to slavery. Asian Americans and Latinos appear mainly as figures on the landscape with virtually no history or contemporary ethnic experience."

(Quote: 2) "Middle school students of color, when asked, are able to articulate frustrations with Eurocentric curricula. Like the eighth graders interviewed by Epstein, 43 gi"ed Black mid- dle school students interviewed by Ford and Harris (2000) all expressed a desire to learn more about Black people in school; most agreed that this would make school more inter- esting, and almost half agreed that they got tired of learning about White people all the time."

The quote above is talks about how students of color feel a disconnected when most of historical figures they are learning about is usually someone who isn't relatable to them. Many of them express that it will make it interesting for them if they are able to learn people who are more like them. Which furthers the notion that Whites are dominating in the current school curriculum.

As a counter to this, Ethnic studies curricula and program such as "Chicano studies courses" from Christine E. Sleeter is a program that aims to educate students who are minorities to learn about history from non Euro-American perspective. It gives students like Carlos to be interested in education since it's a topic that is relatable to him and his heritage without it being as victimization of his culture and or people.

(Quote: 3) "Carlos finally decided to go see what Chicano studies was all about. #at hooked him on education. For the first time in his life, the curriculum was centered on his reality. Carlos completed two years of community college, taking as many Chicano studies courses as possible, then went on to complete a BA degree in Spanish."

Reflection/Questions/Comments To Share: After reading throughout the passage, I wonder how might centering multiple perspectives not just Euro-American change how we see U.S. history. What will stay in place if things do change to include multiple perspectives, and what will get remove to better accurately document historical events? 

Shifting the Paradigm from Deficit Oriented Schools to Asset Based Models Main Argument

 Shifting the Paradigm from Deficit Oriented Schools to Asset Based Models is an article written by Shannon Renkly and co-written by Katherine Bertolini under the research for South Dakota State University. In the article there are two paradigms that Renkly and Bertonlini bring light to which is a "Deficit base model" and a "Asset base model" that school fall into. The focus of a deficit model is on the things that students are unable to do.  When a student is performing below expectations, individuals who utilize a deficit model assume that the student is not trying hard enough. Conversely, an asset model, emphasizes a student's abilities and play into their strengths. The asset model fosters each student's success by maintaining an educational program and school culture that support learning via cooperation, trust, and a customized learning environment with high standards for each student.

The main point that Shannon Renkly and Katherine Bertolini are relaying to us is that schools should focus on what students are capable of and help them nurture their potential in any skill they are natural at through the Asset based education model. Renkly and Bertonlini provided an example on how Asset based education can help build healthy Communities with a common commitment are conducive to the health of children and adolescents.  They stand out as relational and intergenerational spaces that prioritize boundaries, empowerment, and support. 

Reflection/Question/Comments To Share:

I like to share a thought I had on the Asset Based Model, and I want to comment that the Asset model would help greatly for neurodivergent students. With the Asset model, neurodivergent students would be seen students that have much improvements that need to be catered too and assisted. While the Deficit model would most likely label the student as "falling behind" and likely be hold from progressing to a further grade or level.

What Counts As Education By Jean Anyon: Explained in Three Quotes.

What Counts As Education by Jean Anyon was made after Jean reflected education policies that were implemented to improve struggling urban schools decades after they were conceptualized. In this week's reading, I wanted to selected 3 quotes that I think conveys Jean's main point in this blog post. Before I begin, Jean Anyon argues that this “school-only” approach in policy making can’t overcome the pressures of poverty in urban areas. I selected three quotes that I think supports her ideas. 

Quote 1: "There are multiple causes of low-quality schooling in urban areas, and education policies as heretofore conceived address only a few. Education policy has not addressed the neighborhood poverty that surrounds and invades urban schools with low expectations and cynicism. Education policy has not ad- dressed the unemployment and joblessness of families who will have few if any resources for the further education of their children, even if they excel in K–12 classes." p. 69

The first quote from Jean explains how policies that are put in place are not making enough of a lasting impact for families who have students attending schools in urban cities, even if the student is excelling in the curriculum. 

Quote 2: "As education policymakers and practitioners, we can acknowledge and act on the power of urban poverty, low wage work, and housing segregation to dwarf most curricular, pedagogical, and other educational reforms." p. 83

The second quote above neatly conveys Jean's ideas by observing that policymakers can do all they can to change how school's curriculum is form for students to succeed, but only making changes that affect in school settings won't make it easier for students who have socioeconomic issues outside of school. If we want to see a positive impact on our education, we are going to need to address the deep rooted issues theses urban communities struggle which are the low wages, poor housing, and lack of policies that aren't in place for them. 

Quote 3: "barriers to school quality and consequence, we can legislate a significantly higher living wage; we can create jobs in cities that offer career ladders and prepare low-income residents to fill them. And, like a number of European countries, we can tax wealthy families and corporations to pay for these and other investments." p. 83

Lastly, our last quote here is Jean suggesting a new paradigm of education policy that can be implemented to in the future for urban schools that could be properly funded by taxing rich families and corporations that can prepare a low income family to enter a career ladder, similar to other western countries in Europe. 

Reflection/Questions/Comments To Share: While reading the PDF, whenever I was in school, I always remember hearing my peers who struggle in school say the phrase "school doesn't matter." or "school is pointless and a waste of time". I think the more accurate phrase is that "school isn't enough." would probably what they were trying to say in that time.